620 Gov’t. Employees Found Working with Forged Certificates
A woman walks past a display of fake certificates, diplomas and identity cards in Manila, in this July 10, 2007 file photo. (Reuters)
The phenomenon of fraudulent certification became apparent in the Kingdom in recent years, especially in the health and engineering sectors. Courts have been examining a large number of cases against forged degree holders who committed serious medical and engineering errors.
Law enforcement authorities in the Kingdom have recently reported that 620 employees in 22 government departments had forged their academic qualifications; among them is an undersecretary in a ministry.
Statistics conducted by the Ministry of Higher Education showed that more than 51,000 forged degree certificates, including postgraduate, doctorate and bachelor’s degrees in various disciplines, are currently being used in the Kingdom.
Social networking sites recently reported that Riyadh police had arrested an Arab expatriate holding a key executive position in a prominent government department. It has also been reported that Yanbu police arrested an Asian nurse who had been working in a clinic for more than 10 years with a forged certificate.
Muhammad Al-Maraol, director general of the General Administration of Relations and Guidance at the Interior Ministry, said that authorities will soon set up a system to deal with citizens who forge degrees as the recently issued regulations deal only with residents.
“According to regulations, expatriates who are found guilty of providing counterfeit educational certificates in the Kingdom will be prosecuted, imprisoned, deported and not allowed to return,” he said.
Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) Chairman Hamad Al-Shaqawi said: “The council prepared a blacklist including the names of all holders of forged qualifications in the Kingdom. Nearly 1,700 false degrees were found by the council, though only 10 percent of them belonged to Saudis.”
He said some East Asian countries were the major sources of falsified degrees. “The SCE registered 191,735 engineers in the professional accreditation program. Only 6.77 percent of them were Saudis,” Al-Shaqawi said, adding that registration will be compulsory after the adoption of a professional engineering system, so as to eliminate all fraudulent certificates.
Al-Shaqawi said that the SCE receives requests for professional registration of engineers through its website.
Taiseer Al-Mofraj, head of the media department at the Ministry of Labor, said the verification of academic qualifications is not within the ministry’s jurisdiction, as it is only concerned with business system offenses.
Muhammad Al-Sulaiman, a lawyer, pointed out that the Interior Ministry recently issued directives for dealing with forged qualification sources with the aim of protecting the public. The Control and Investigation Bureau has jurisdiction and will investigate and indict any suspects.